FOX Entertainment has renewed the workplace comedy Animal Control, starring Emmy Award nominee Joel McHale, for a third season; it was announced today by Michael Thorn, President of Scripted Programming, FOX Entertainment.
The single-camera show, FOX’s first wholly-owned live-action comedy, launched last year as the network’s most-streamed debut ever and will debut its second season on Wednesday, March 6 (9:00-9:30 ET/PT).
Created by Bob Fisher, Rob Greenberg, and Dan Sterling, with Tad Quill serving as showrunner, Animal Control follows a group of local Animal Control workers whose lives are complicated by the fact that animals are simple, but humans are not.
Joel McHale stars as Frank, an opinionated, eccentric Animal Control officer who may not have gone to college but is still the most well-read person in the room. A former cop, Frank tried to expose corruption in his department, but his efforts got him fired, which may explain why he’s so cynical and curmudgeonly. He has an almost superhuman ability to understand animals. Humans…not so much.
“Animal Control is an incredibly irreverent series that expresses everything viewers expect from a FOX comedy,” said Thorn.
“It has an amazing amount of momentum behind it, and we’ve been so impressed by the work Joel, Bob, Rob, Dan, Tad, Jake, and the entire cast are delivering for Season Two we wanted to reward them with the opportunity to deliver even more of this special show to fans next season.”
In addition to McHale, Animal Control stars Michael Rowland as Fred “Shred” Taylor, Vella Lovell as Emily Price, Ravi Patel as Amit Patel, Grace Palmer as Victoria Sands, and Gerry Dee recurs as Templeton Dudge. Season two ushers in mating season – for both the animals and the officers who protect them.
Upcoming season two guest stars include Ken Jeong as expert (and unhinged) dog trainer Roman Park, Sarah Chalke as Yazmin, a love interest from Frank’s past, and Krystal Smith in the recurring role of Bettany, Emily’s tenacious, tough, sometimes frightening assistant.
The series premiere of Animal Control marked FOX’s most-streamed debut in network history and the most-streamed comedy episode ever in the network’s history. It averages 5.2 million multi-platform viewers, including 2.6 million on Hulu, a lift of +302% from Live + Same Day.
Animal Control is produced by FOX Entertainment Studios and executive-produced by Bob Fisher (Wedding Crashers, Sirens, The Moodys), Rob Greenberg (Frasier, How I Met Your Mother, The Moodys), Dan Sterling (Long Shot, The Interview, Girls, The Office, King of the Hill), Tad Quill (Scrubs, The Moodys), Jake Fuller (JAX Media) and Joel McHale.
Mirko Parlevliet has been reporting on the entertainment industry since 1998 and founded Vital Thrills in 2018 to cover the latest news on streaming, movies, TV, and video games.